Wednesday, August 18, 2004

That is all that needs to be said. It is the new racism towards whites for one and then towards the very minorities who spout and support the many ideologies of this cause.

Under this banner we have tolerance which enforces the logically flawed thinking that we ought to accept things that are different from the norm, or that all people are special and are naturally good. This line of thinking is at the core of our screwed up judicial system where minor offenders are sentenced to harsh terms and harsh offenders of the law get off scott free, in many cases, just because of the color of their skin!

Within this framework we also have the very popular notion that it is o.k. for foriegners to come into our country, whether illegally or legally, and not have to learn the dominant language of English. As a result, we have bi-lingual signs, advertising, radio stations, learning materials, interpreters, and now it is a job requirement to have to speak another language for jobs that, traditionally, never required it. And then there is the so called "dialect" of Ebonics or "code switching" which allows illiterate children to remain so without challenging them to actually learn to speak proper english, but still advance through our school system. In addition, this ideology has given birth to the atrocity called Affirmative Action (Special Preferences, Reverse Racism, Racial quotas, etc., etc.).

We have companies sponsor Gay Days for their homosexual employees to supposedly "come out" and share their lifestyle with coworkers, many of whom could probably care less. It is even to the point of having national recognition where people who practice such deviant behavior get to go out into the streets of the city in parade form. Even Disneyland has gotten into the act! Amazing!

Where will it end? How far will our society go in the name of Multi-Culturalism? Or Tolerance? Should we tolerate everything and everyone? Is that really tolerance or pandering? What is worse yet is that when you express disagreement with any of the afore mentioned you are deemed intolerant, racist, and judgemental. Well, I agree with two out of the three, I am intolerant and judgemental, but that is my right as a free citizen of the USA and I have a God given ability to do so. Based on the truth of God's word, we are to judge, although not self-righteously, but against the truth of scripture, and we ought not to be tolerant of every lifestyle or ideology, to do so causes us to come into conflict with God's will.

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

I was reading an article by Star Parker on Townhall.com and got to the last couple of lines where she stated "Let's hope we have the wisdom to choose the real path to freedom, in Illinois and around the nation" She was writing about the differences between the two U.S. Senate candidates Barak Obama and Alan Keyes, who are vying for a seat for the state of Illinois. The part that stood out to me for some reason is "...the real path to freedom". It struck me like a ton of bricks! True freedom doesn't come by means of liberation from... but by declaring allegiance to something or someone. In other words, a person is never truly free from anything.
The Apostle Paul demonstrates this argument when he says that he is a "bondservant of Christ", and in another place he states that he has become a slave to Christ when once he was a slave to sin, a common theme in scripture is bondage and servitude to one thing or another, to the captors of Israel or to God, to God or to Satan. Granted, you may argue that some of the Israelites predicaments were not necessarily by choice, or were they? The main reasons why Israel was constantly attacked and defeated is due to their disobedience to God. When they were obedient God protected them and they were able to defeat all of their enemies, great or small. When the people allowed disobedience to reign, the enemies were ready to pounce, and did so with a vengeance.
This sentiment is a far cry from today's secular-new-age-liberal thinking where one can declare freedom by resisting "traditionalism" and embracing an "open mind". Our society embraces the thinking that whatever a person does is o.k. as long as they do not hurt anyone else by it. You are free to choose whatever you want. Well, this is true, yet disingenuous at the same time, in that, when unclarified, it implies that a person can do whatever they want without consequences, as long as it doesn't effect others, yet, we fail to realize that our behavior does affect others in ways that we may not understand as of yet.
Case in point, the homosexual movement to legitimize, not only homosexuality but same-sex marriage as well, wouldn't be possible if there weren't a significant number of individuals choosing to be Gay. Without each of these people making their individual choices to be a homosexual there would be no Gay movement. Yet, many of these individuals and their sympathizers would argue that they have a right to be whoever they are as long as they do not affect others. Is this True? And again, they contend that two men or women marrying doesn't affect heterosexual marriage nor does it affect the whole of society. Marriage is a private and personal choice to be made by two individuals, right? But wait! If these are true statements then why is there such an uproar in regards to the issue of same-sex marriage, even among liberals? Is it that the far right is simply attempting to strip away certain liberties from the Gay community? Trying to deny their right to choose? Or can it be that maybe the individual, personal choices of these Gay men and women actually does affect society both directly and indirectly.
Another example is abortion. The right to choose to kill your baby is a personal choice that shouldn't be infringed upon by government or anyone else, including the father, right? Well, this is what our society contends as being freedom. A woman can choose to "terminate" her pregnancy and that is her right, her freedom. To deny her that right is to take away her freedoms. This line of reasoning implies that her choice doesn't affect anyone else since she is the one who will carry the baby for 9 months, go through the different stages of pregnancy and post-pregnancy, and most likely, have to raise the child by herself. Yet, it fails to bring one key point into the picture, the right of the baby to live! So does her choice affect others? Well I would contend that they do, and not just that baby but the father of that child as well, and its grandparents. We can even go as far as to say it affects that child's future friends and relationships as they would not have the opportunity to develop. Additionally, a woman's choice to kill her baby affects the whole of society in the form of government subsidized abortions, the behavior of young girls, and their attitudes towards sex.
As Mr. Thomas Sowell often states, there are always unintended consequences or costs that are usually never taken into consideration at the onset of an idea, especially by the liberal left.
What is real freedom then? In scripture Jesus states that the path to righteousness is straight and narrow and the road to destruction is wide. In other words, one road is narrow and doesn't allow for much wandering. The other is wide and gives much room to drift, wander, and even to turn around. Which one offers freedom? Well, both offer it, yet only one is true, and genuine. So freedom is a matter of choice, ultimately between two things, ideals, or entities. I would contend that the narrow path actually offers more freedom than the wide open path, because with it comes peace, joy, love, etc., etc... all of the things that we search for in the wide path we find in the narrow one. You may ask, why is that? A question for another day, another time.
I will end on the same note as Ms. Parker, I hope we will have the wisdom to choose the real path to freedom.

This is a report I read entitled Recess from Reality: The Feminist Failure to Embrace School Choiceby Carrie L. Lukas on the subject of school choice, particularly in regards to the voucher programs that are currently under fire in several states, including Washington D.C. In it the writer gives some scenarios that give you a glimpse of the thinking involved with those who oppose vouchers as well as citing some very good and strong evidence that suggests that having a choice in regards to education can be and usually is, a good thing for all, especially women. It is her argument that rather than opposing these education policies, women's groups such as NOW, and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) ought to begin supporting school choice, not just vouchers, but all educational options in that parents and particularly women, young and old, will be better served by them.

It is amazing to witness such hypocrisy among the so called proponents of "Choice", where you have such feminine organizations who tout the mantra of freedom of choice for women when speaking of killing their babies in the womb, yet when it comes to educating the children, who some how managed to be deemed worthy enough to live by their moms, their silence is as deafening as their logically flawed protest.The basic fundamentals behind the voucher program is choice. Giving the parents, and subsequently the students, more choice in who educates them and ultimately how they are to be educated. For anyone who may not be familiar with the voucher issues, this is a good report to get up to speed on what they do for families as well as to find out what the detractors are saying. Ms. Lukas also goes into some details about the common myths that are put out there regarding school vouchers and provides strong arguments and evidence to prove them false. One in particular is the notion that public schools will somehow suffer if monies are redirected to the voucher programs and their students leave. A good point she makes in addressing this myth is that through the simple principles of capitalism, although she doesn't come right out and say it, these public schools can and most likely will implement policies to improve in order to maintain their students and to compete with other schools, and therefore will actually become better at educating our children. So, through free enterprise we find that there can actually be opportunities to better the overall educational system across the board. Yet opponents to school choice fail to recognize this very basic and logical notion and continue to spout that the public schools just need more money and smaller classrooms and better teacher training, blah blah blah, ad nauseum. Ofcourse, vouchers and other school choice options, will actually allow public schools to do just that! Amazing!

As I said, hypocrisy. Obviously, as I stated before, the so called notion of choice in reference to women's rights is not about choice at all but about egocentrism. This is a case in point. Here is a perfect opportunity for these champions of women's rights to demonstrate and reinforce "Choice" in the prevailing culture, yet, they drop the ball and oppose choice. You have to ask, why? Something to think about.

Monday, August 16, 2004

Hello all. I know I haven't posted here in quite some time, a couple of weeks actually, I've been quite busy with my business and kids. I am back now though and with something a little different. A fellow blog poster contacted me and requested that I post some of his writings occasionally on my blog as he doesn't have a lot of time to run a blog of his own and somehow felt that I would suffice in being a platform for him to express his views. After reviewing one of his writings I agreed to post them on my blog as we do hold to some basic essentials of the Christian faith and therefore I did not see any real conflict. I also thought it would be interesting to offer another perspective on some of the same issues and points that I've brought up myself.

So without further adue, here is his first post entitled "Whats Wrong With Us" written by Mr. Kieth Harris.

“What’s wrong with us starts in the beginning”

In the school my children attend here in town the four-year-old kindergarten classes begin the school year with the same memory verse Genesis 1:1. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

This verse is one of the most important verses of scripture in the bible and should be taught more in the Church because everything rises and falls on whether you believe this verse or not.

Our young people are faced with many problems in our community today, drug abuse, out of wedlock births, violent crime, and abortion just to name a few.

One of the prevailing teachings in our public schools today is the theory of evolution, the teaching that we all were made by some chance encounter with some gas and water. After that the slime that was made by the gas and the water, some cells were developed and then some larger life forms evolved, then monkeys came along and eventually we evolved from monkeys into the men and women that we are today. I have broken this theory down to its bare minimum and further reading by you of some more educated authors would be suggested to explain the details of this theory. Never the less you get the picture; God is nowhere to be found in this theory. You may say that this has nothing to do with what the problems of our society or community are, but let’s ask some questions. Surely the teaching of evolution has not caused the problems stated earlier. I say it has had an effect on our children more than we can imagine.

Take drug abuse for instance, if we evolved from monkeys and there is no loving God who created me why should I care what happens to my body when I kill it with all manner of substances. My body is not the temple of the Holy Spirit, if I just happened as evolution teaches by chance. But God has taught us through his word that he infinitely cares for us. Psalm 139:14 says I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Marvelous are your works, And that my soul knows very well. The knowledge and acknowledgement of this fact leads us as Christians not to abuse our bodies in any way including drugs and alcohol.

What about out-of wedlock births; the theory of evolution teaches that our sexuality is nothing more than that of the dogs and other animals. If we follow this view we end up acting like dogs and other animals, not being able to control ourselves because we are controlled by our animal instincts. God created a better plan for us than animal instincts; He says in his word Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God, and you are not your own. 1 Corinthians 6:18-19, he created us to enjoy sex within the bonds of lasting and loving marriage relationships that stand the test of time.

1 Corinthians 7:1-2 says Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: it is good for a man not to touch a woman. Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband. The Corinthians must have written to Paul about the question of sex outside of marriage. A common practice for men in Corinth was, even if he had a wife, sexual immorality with temple prostitutes in the temple of Aphrodite. The Corinthians asked what should be the biblical approach to the practices that they where used too. He answered the question in verse two in such a way that left no doubt that a man with one wife and a woman with one husband is God’s will for sexual relationships. This indeed is still God’s will for us today. We have heard recently of violent crimes on the rise in our area from gangs coming to the Charlotte region. We used to think that this was only a big city problem. We have seen in the past two or three years several murders here in Lancaster County. Another problem which is much more disturbing than blacks being killed by violent crime is abortion. We tend not to hear much about this problem due to the politics that have crept into the church but I will save that one for another time. Why do I say that the abortion is more disturbing? Consider these stats from the US Center for disease control: since 1973 306,313 African Americans where killed by violent crime and during this same time period, over 12 million African Americans babies have been aborted, which is equal to the combined populations of eight mid-western states. These things should be disturbing to us as a community. You might ask what evolution has to do with gang violence and abortion in our community. The answer is simple; the theory of evolution has leaded us and our children to cheapen the value of life. If you think that this has not affected you or that maybe your child has not been exposed to this cheap view of life. This cheap view of life is even in the popular music of our day, check out what the popular rapper 50 Cent had to say when he was interviewed by the Associated Press "Where I'm from, the price of life is cheap,"…. "For $5,000, you can get somebody killed." But God created us and has given each and every life purpose and therefore since he has given life purpose life is valuable. He says in Jeremiah 29:11 'For I know the plans that I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. NASB

So what do we do to combat this teaching in our public schools? You have options,and the best option that we all can employ is to teach our children the biblical way. Teach them that they are fearfully and wonderfully made. Teach them that they have been created in what is called in Latin the “imago dei” or image of God, and that He has a purpose for each and every life that He created. Teach them to know that it is true that in the beginning God, our loving heavenly Father, and no other is the creator.